Leadership Team

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Naivedya Agarwal,

Co-Founder & CEO, Runaya

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Annanya Agarwal,

Co-Founder & CEO, Runaya

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Amit Pradhan,

Vice Chairman

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Aniruddha Joshi,

President Marketing

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Neha Bhandari,

CFO

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K Ganeshkumar,

Dy. CEO - Runaya Private Limited

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Jagannath Prasad,

Dy. CEO - Runaya Refining & Runaya Greentech

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Naivedya Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO, Runaya

Naivedya is the Co- Founder and CEO at Runaya, responsible for the Manufacturing Technologies vertical. As an advocate and believer in technology and innovation leading to business growth, Naivedya also drives the digitization journey and strategic growth roadmap for Runaya.

In the five years since inception, Runaya had established itself as a trusted partner to all stakeholders, including customers, employees, and society with its strong focus on governance and sustainability.

Prior to founding Runaya, Naivedya worked with organizations such as Boston Consulting Group, JP Morgan and Vedanta Resources where he was Vice President-Business Development at Hindustan Zinc.

Naivedya holds an MBA degree from London Business School and is a qualified scuba diver and has also trained as a pilot on the Cessna 172 aircraft.

Annanya Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO, Runaya

With sustainability at the heart of the business an eye towards societal growth, Annanya Agarwal a young and dynamic 32-year-old leads the sustainability practice at Runaya where he aims to create technologically advanced sustainable solutions for the resources and material sciences sector.

Under his leadership at Runaya Refining, the company has achieved major milestones in less than five years of the operations. He has been extensively involved in the development of “Restora Ultra”, the world’s lowest Carbon Footprint Aluminium, and has also been instrumental in executing our green field projects. Annanya has a strong belief that through Runaya, he can solve the biggest challenges facing the resources sector and build a greener tomorrow.

Annanya comes with a rich global experience having worked with renowned companies such as Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company and Standard Chartered Bank. He studied Economics and Sociology at Emory University, and is an alumnus of United World College SouthEast Asia (UWCSEA), Singapore. His formative years were spent at Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai. He is extremely passionate about environment preservation, green technology and football. He is a passionate sports enthusiast and has been heading Vedanta's sporting interventions as President of Vedanta Sports for more than five years.

Amit Pradhan, Vice Chairman Runaya

Carrying a rich experience of over 40 years, Amit Pradhan is the Vice-Chairman of Runaya. He has been associated with the company since its inception and has been guiding the organisation in its way to 'Build Future Positive'.

Amit Pradhan is a notable alumnus of St Stephens College, Delhi and IIT Delhi. Throughout his career, he has been part of various leading companies in the resources industry. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Sesa Goa Group of companies, during which he played a crucial role in setting up the Company's biggest expansion project in Value Addition Business, with the largest and fully integrated Pig Iron, Coke, and Power business in India with international benchmark operating parameters. He was also responsible for the acquisition of new tenements and policy framework interventions. Prior to this, he had also led the commercial business for the group. Having successfully completed acquisition of the 2nd largest iron ore mining company in Goa, he has evaluated several mining acquisition prospects in Brazil, Australia, Canada, Africa, and India. Furthermore, he led the M&A for the group from 2007-2009.

Additionally, Amit led all growth projects in Iron, Coke, Mining, Shipping for the Group. He had set up the waste heat recovery power plant on a BOO basis through a conglomerate and secured CDM registration with UNFCCC ( project no 0535). Simultaneously, he had also undertaken several capacity enhancement & de-bottle necking projects from concept to commissioning on transhipper vessel, mining and pig iron businesses. Amit had also chartered to partner with the business leaders to structure a centre-led, best practice strategic sourcing and procurement organization capable of delivering cost reduction and related efficiencies in all its businesses.

Amit has been felicitated with the Jewel of India Award by Indian Solidarity Council for his exceptional role in the developments. He has also been recognized by the International WHO Historical Society for his exemplary achievement and distinguished contributions to the business community.

Aniruddha Joshi, President - Business Development

With over 35 years of rich experience in the metals and mining industry, Aniruddha N. Joshi is the President of Business Development at Runaya. After completing his B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur, he worked for the mines division of Rourkela Steel Plant in Orissa and Visakhapatnam Steel Plant in Andhra Pradesh for almost a decade. Following this, he worked towards introducing systems, rationalising manpower, changing processing plants to improve the recovery of processing plants and reduce water as well as power consumption per unit of saleable Iron ore output. His focus to deliver the best and make a positive impact through his expertise has made him reach numerous heights in his career. His dedication to bringing about a revolutionary change has resulted in him introducing slow classifiers in the processing plants to reduce alumina in the ore. He introduced magnetic separators to improve the recovery of iron ore from tailings. Since 2002, he had initiated laterite waste as Iron ore and sold it to one of the best European plants in the world. After retiring in August 2015 from Vedanta Ltd (erstwhile Sesa Goa)as CEO, he worked as full-time consultant to Iron Ore Business of Vedanta Ltd till April 2016 and later worked as part time consultant till May 2017.

Aniruddha Joshi was also a member of the Governing Council at the Goa Engineering College, where he was an instrumental part of improving the quality of education for the talented, young minds. Additionally, contributing towards a sustainable and greener tomorrow, he also works on converting plastic to polyfuel. Passionately driven to make the world a better place, he continues working towards building a better life for the needy. Aniruddha volunteers to collect leftover, fresh food and helps to make it available to needy people.

Neha Bhandari, CFO

Having a rich industry experience of over 20 years in finance and commerce, Neha Bhandari is the Group CFO of Runaya, and is responsible for group finance and strategy. She is well-versed in the key business drivers, challenges, and strategies. Being a qualified Chartered Accountant and an experienced professional, she is looked up to for her leadership and exceptional analytical skills.

Motivating and encouraging the entire team as a leader, she has high managerial skills and has the capability to produce the desired results with consistency and dedication.

Passionately driven and a seasoned professional, Neha comes with a rich 15 years of experience in Vedanta Resources and has covered group financial controlling, strategy, and corporate finance. She is a CA from The Indian Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (IICAI) and has raised USD 35 billion in the form of equity and debt under various structures.

K Ganeshkumar, Dy. CEO - Runaya Private Limited

Ganesh has over 20+ years of diversified experience in Marketing, Business Development, Operations & Supply Chain Management with his main expertise in metal, mining and Auto component industry. In his current capacity as Deputy CEO of Runaya Private Limited, his main responsibility is to unlock the true potential of business with strong focus on ESG, Volume, Cost, MIP, Innovation, Digitalisation, quality and stakeholder management to build a world class organisation.

Prior to joining Runaya in 2021, Ganesh led the Business Development Wing at Rane Brake Lining Limited. Ganesh started his career as an Associate Manager(Operations) in Sterlite Industries India Limited.

On the academic front, Ganesh has a Chemical Engineering Master’s degree from NIT Trichy and an Executive MBA from IIM Calcutta with focus on Operations, Supply Chain Management, New product management, Strategy and Marketing.

His passion for taking this journey of business excellence to a new horizon continues with his sturdy approach towards long-term sustainability and strong belief in making ESG an integral part of the business. He has also been recognized as the Star of Business by Sterlite Copper.

Jagannath Prasad, Dy. CEO - Runaya Refining & Runaya Greentech

Carrying a rich industry experience of almost two decades, Jagannath Prasad Routray is the Deputy CEO of Runaya Refining & Runaya Greentech. His unwavering commitment to creating a green, empowered and sustainable tomorrow has helped him achieve multiple milestones in his career.

Jagannath started his career as an Associate Manager - Operations in Hindustan Zinc. Throughout his career, he has been entrusted with various roles and responsibilities including the strategic planning process, Business analysis and implementation of various Operational and Cost Initiatives. During his course, he has also handled over a million dollars spend base for Strategic Mining expansion projects - Mine development, infrastructure and beneficiation plants.

As a Dy CEO at Runaya, he aims to build an organization that thrives to achieve zero harm & a sustainable circular economy in the metal & mining sector. He has successfully completed two Greenfield Projects in Aluminium Metal and downstream industry. Additionally, he is also driving the strategic acquisition, and New Projects for establishing a minor & base metal recovery business.

Being a committed leader and a professional, Jagannath has received multiple awards and recognitions under his name. He was a recipient of the Great Managers Award 2021. He has also been recognized as the Star of Business by Hindustan Zinc Ltd.